1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation apparatus and a navigation method with image recognition.
2. Description of Related Art
So far, various technologies for navigating a vertical-takeoff aircraft such as a helicopter and the like to land on the ground (a ship) have been proposed.
One proposed example of them is a technology for navigating a helicopter to a predetermined target spot by detecting sound wave generated from the helicopter with a microphone, by calculating a position of the helicopter based on an electric signal regarding the sound wave, and by transmitting the calculation result to the helicopter (see JP-Tokukaihei-8-7199A, Page 1, FIG. 1). Further, another proposed example of them is a technology for navigating a flying object to a predetermined target spot based on positional information of the flying object obtained by using a millimeter-wave radar apparatus or a stereo camera apparatus located on the ground (see JP-Tokukaihei-11-72558A, Page 1, FIG. 1).
Further, these days, what is developed is “DGPS/INS hybrid navigation apparatus” which accurately measures relative positional information of an aircraft body with respect to a predetermined target spot by using DGPS such as RTK-GPS or the like, and corrects positional information obtained by an inertial sensor based on accurate positional information obtained by DGPS. By using such hybrid navigation apparatus, it is possible to navigate an aircraft body to a predetermined target spot.
However, when the technology of JP-Tokukaihei-8-7199A or the technology of JP-Tokukaihei-11-72558A is adopted, it is necessary to set ground facilities for the navigation control, such as a microphone, a millimeter-wave radar apparatus, a stereo camera apparatus and the like near the predetermined target spot in advance. Therefore, it is not possible to navigate an aircraft body to a spot near which these ground facilities for the navigation control are not set.
Further, in the navigation technology with the above-mentioned DGPS/INS hybrid navigation apparatus, since the differential between positional information of a target spot and positional information of an aircraft body is used as relative positional information for navigating the aircraft body, it is necessary to measure an absolute coordinate of the target spot in advance. Therefore, it is necessary to spend a certain amount of time and labor for the measurement of the absolute coordinate. Further, since it is necessary to set a GPS base station for transmitting correction information for DGPS to the aircraft on the ground, a system structure thereof becomes complicated. Further, in order to wait for the convergence of DGPS solutions, it is necessary to make an aircraft do the hovering or the slow flight up in midair near the target spot before the landing. Therefore, flying time becomes longer and extra fuel is wasted unnecessarily.